Month: November 2022

Cowlitz Community Network Board Meeting 

Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 | 12:00PM – 1:00PM 

MINUTES 

Present:  Louise Brown, Kay Gunter, Gabby Meador, Laurie Severson, Jeane Conrad 

Absent: Michael O’Neill-Chair, Corie Dow-Kramer  

Guests Present:  

Staff Present: Rochelle Fassold 

Consent Agenda 

Consent Agenda documents were sent to members for review prior to the meeting. 

• 10-2022 CCN Minutes (draft) 
• 11-2022 Treasurer’s Report 
• 11-2022 Red Canoe statement  

Motion: Jeane motioned to approve the Consent Agenda as presented, Laurie seconded, and the motion carried. 

Old Business  

• update on CFSWW grant- Rochelle to email Maka or Esra by next week to check in on status 

New Business 

• Firstenburg Foundation grant application meeting update: Louise and Rochelle explained to the board that we were not selected for this round of funding but felt optimistic that we could get selected for the next cycle of funding after the first of the year once the executive director, Jennifer resubmits our application to the board.  

• Luggage of Love-Non-profit transition: The joint board meeting will be scheduled after getting an update from Corie  

• Discussion on revisiting mission statement:  The board agreed the current mission statement is too broad and should be revisited.  Consider assessing the gaps in the services based on community needs and the interests and abilities of the board to come up with a more focused mission.  This will be added to December’s agenda for more discussion. 

• Advocacy Campaign:  The network is currently working on ways to get people’s different perspectives and stories on how the childcare crisis is affecting them.  There is an advocacy tool on the website and information is being shared via the monthly newsletter and Facebook.  

• Laurie brought up keys points about supports that help bridge the gap to Kindergarten (T-K), which offer free preschool, however, this also causes financial hardships for childcare center/providers.  As we navigate this crisis, we need to collaborate and come up with solutions that work for everyone. 
• Jeane discussed how far behind children are social/emotionally as well as academically due to the COVID pandemic and how isolated families were.  Many parents are at a loss how to help their children succeed and we need to find ways to engage these families. 
• **Encouraging parents to read to and with their children is vitally important 

Community Events 

• Giving Tuesday– November 29th 3-6pm at Youth and Family (we are listed in the catalog and will need to pick up our donations by 5:30pm)      

• Louise volunteered to be present to pick up donations 

• WOYC-Celebration of Children– Saturday, April 1^st at Youth and Family, set up on March 31st – interest in participating and/or providing raffle prize or goodie bags?  

• The board is interested in being involved and setting up a table with an activity and information at the event.  Rochelle will get more information at the Dec 8^th meeting 

• Activity ideas focusing on social emotional development:  getting donated books from the Rotary Club or Dolly Parton’s imagination library, Inside Out movie, Discovery Toys, Conscious Discipline, Create raffle baskets for different age groups 

• United Way’s Kindergarten Readiness Goal community survey: 

Asking for participation to fill out the online survey to provide feedback on the challenges and strengths of our community, and to help identify how we can support families and children.  Here is the link:  https://www.cowlitzunitedway.org/kindergarten-readiness?fbclid=IwAR3hCwMpa5gA-ky-jvsefiZl1dKZ9RkCNEYE2aBzQi2yFIc28R3vpc4vULo 

• Early Learning Coalition meeting-Friday, November 18^th 

• They are working, along with LCC Head start, on doing a community assessment to bring information from our region to the state level 

Next Meeting  

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 20th, 2022, 12pm-1pm